New Mexico just did something no other state has done. A Santa Fe jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million for misleading users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Then a judge went further, finding the platforms created a public nuisance in New Mexico, ordering another $567 million, and imposing five years of court-supervised child safety changes — bringing total penalties to $942 million.
We think that is a legitimate outcome. If a company knew children were being exposed to predators and addictive design and told parents a different story, it should answer for it in a courtroom.
But we want to ask the Attorney General and every leader who took a victory lap this month a straightforward question.
Why does that standard stop at the state line?
Because the Meta judgment is not just a check. It is a compliance regime. Stronger age verification. Restrictions on adult contact with minors. Limits on nighttime notifications. Default privacy protections for teen accounts. Usage limits. Public reporting on whether the company is actually doing what it was ordered to do — for five years, in front of a judge.
That is the New Mexico standard for an out-of-state corporation that has our children's attention for a few hours a day.
Now look at the agencies that have our children for far more than that — and that are legally charged with their protection, their health, their care, and their education.
There is no comparable standard. There is no compliance regime. There is no judge counting the days.
The Record We Actually Own
Start with education, because the number has not moved in a decade.
The 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book ranked New Mexico 50th in education for the tenth consecutive year. Tenth. The state ranked 49th overall in child well-being, and 50th in the family and community domain. U.S. News separately ranks New Mexico 50th in pre-K-12. WalletHub put the state 50th in quality of education this February.
Ten years of last place is not a bad news cycle or a staffing shortage. It is a governing outcome.
Then there is CYFD — the agency whose entire reason for existing is protecting children from abuse and neglect.
In April, the Attorney General's own office released a sweeping investigative report documenting systemic failures at CYFD, finding that breakdowns in leadership, investigations, and oversight had repeatedly placed children at risk of serious harm. The Department of Justice sued the agency. Reporting on the investigation described 14 child deaths over two years in circumstances tied to lapses in CYFD decision-making.
Money has not been the constraint, and the state's own numbers show it. CYFD was allocated roughly $18.7 million over three years for pilot programs meant to fix the agency's problems — then failed to spend and returned more than $5.2 million of it to the Legislature. In fiscal year 2025, the agency spent just 10% of the funding lawmakers set aside to expand prevention and intervention programs. A federal prevention program called SafeCare enrolled 25 families through the end of fiscal year 2026. One completed it. Seventy-eight families declined.
Meanwhile, 16% of New Mexico children who had already suffered abuse or neglect were mistreated again, as of May. The national benchmark is 9%. A state audit found CYFD misused millions appropriated for behavioral health.
And now the early childhood agency.
Two high-ranking officials at the Early Childhood Education and Care Department — the department's chief financial officer and its former budget director — have filed whistleblower lawsuits alleging they were retaliated against after flagging an $83 million shortfall in the Universal Child Care program, and that ECECD leadership illegally shuffled funds between programs to paper over the gap.
We supported making child care affordable. That is not the issue. The issue is whether the money is where the state says it is, and whether the people who raised their hands got punished for it.
What the Agencies Say
To be fair, they dispute it.
ECECD says it followed the law in establishing and funding Universal Child Care and will respond to the allegations in court. CYFD pushed back on the state audit's findings, and Governor Lujan Grisham characterized the Attorney General's report as capturing "a system of the past" rather than the agency today. CYFD has also argued the opposite of the underspending critique — that the Legislature has underfunded it, warning last year that a shortfall would jeopardize services and risk federal penalties tied to the Kevin S. settlement.
Those responses deserve to be heard. They also make the point sharper, not weaker.
Meta disputed the allegations against it too. Meta said its platforms were safe, that it had invested in protections, that the state's picture was outdated and incomplete. New Mexico did not accept that. New Mexico demanded evidence, testimony, documents, and then enforceable, court-supervised changes with public reporting attached.
If a corporate denial was not good enough for Santa Fe, an agency denial should not be either.
The Question for the Attorney General
We are not asking the AG to drop the Meta case. We are asking why its logic has not been turned inward.
The Meta theory of the case was that when an institution's design predictably harms children, disclosure is not enough — the design has to change, and someone has to verify that it did. That is a good theory. We would like it applied to the institutions New Mexico actually controls.
So three things:
One — put enforceable performance benchmarks in statute, with consequences. Meta got hard requirements and a five-year clock. CYFD, PED, and ECECD operate on plans, pilots, and press releases. If an agency misses its targets, something should happen other than a larger appropriation.
Two — require public quarterly compliance reporting from CYFD and ECECD, in the same form the court required of Meta. Repeat maltreatment rates, caseload and licensure numbers, dollars appropriated versus dollars actually spent, and program enrollment against projections. Published. On a schedule. Where parents and legislators can read it without filing a records request.
Three — give the state child advocate real independent audit authority. Lawmakers are already moving in this direction after reporting that the watchdog has been stonewalled trying to get CYFD records. Finish it. An oversight office that has to beg the agency it oversees for documents is not oversight.
Where We Land
We are glad New Mexico held Meta accountable. We said so, and we still mean it. The state proved it can identify a harm to children, build a record, win, and impose real structural change with real supervision.
Which is exactly why the silence on the rest is so hard to explain.
The state does not lack the tools. It does not lack the legal creativity. It does not lack the willingness to fight a powerful institution in public. It has demonstrated all three.
It has simply not aimed any of it at the departments that hold New Mexico's children for hours every single day, that have failed by their own reported measures for a decade, and whose own employees are now in court saying the books were moved to hide the shortfall.
We would like an answer. Not a report. Not a plan. An answer.
Why isn't the Meta standard the New Mexico standard?
Endnotes
- Meta ordered to pay $567 million in New Mexico teen mental health case; judge orders teen-use limits and youth-safety changes for five years — reuters.com
- New Mexico wins historic court judgment against Meta; total penalties $942 million and required platform changes — nmdoj.gov
- A Decade of Last Place: New Mexico Ranks 50th in Education Again (2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book) — nmkidscan.org
- New Mexico ranks 50th in education, 49th in child well-being — koat.com
- New Mexico state rankings, pre-K-12 ranked 50th — usnews.com
- New Mexico ranks as one of the least educated states; 50th in quality of education — krqe.com
- NM DOJ report cites systemic failures at CYFD — drnm.org
- CYFD "in crisis": AG files lawsuit after 14 child deaths tied to agency failures — nmpoliticalreport.com
- CYFD pilot programs: mixed results with money left on table; $5.2 million returned, 10% of prevention funding spent, SafeCare enrollment, 16% repeat maltreatment vs. 9% national benchmark — searchlightnm.org
- State auditor: child welfare agency misused millions — searchlightnm.org
- New Mexico state agency CFO files lawsuit alleging $83M budget shortfall from universal childcare — sourcenm.com
- Former budget official sues, alleging state retaliated after she flagged childcare shortfall — searchlightnm.org
- Whistleblower lawsuit puts New Mexico's universal child care program under scrutiny; ECECD says it followed the law — krqe.com
- Gov. Lujan Grisham says AG report on child welfare agency captures "a system of the past" — sourcenm.com
- Critical funding shortfall threatens New Mexico's child welfare services (CYFD statement) — cyfd.nm.gov
- Amid stonewalling, New Mexico lawmakers plan to give more authority to CYFD watchdog — searchlightnm.org
